Time for a break
by Emjev
Summary: Set some time after the last episode, Sophie and Nate have left. Parker and Eliot is starting to feel the job taking its tall on their bodies and suggests a vacation. E/P if you squint, may develop their relationship later on if the story becomes multi-chapter.


**Time for a break**

 **AN: This is an idea that suddenly just popped into my head and that I simply had to write something from. I am not sure if it will be a one shot, or a multi-chapter fic, but I guess the potential of the story will be decided by you guys. Remember this might be AU and OOC. Anyway, read and (hopefully) enjoy! And I am sorry if there are any grammatical errors, English is not my native language. Also reviews are greatly appreciated, but please be kind since this is my first Leverage fic. Oh, I do not own Leverage, I have simply borrowed the characters and so if you see anything familiar, then obviously it is not mine.**

 _-Set a couple of years after the departure of Sophie and Nate, oh and H/P never happened._

Eliot sat by the desk in his office at the Leverage headquarters, which also doubled as Hardison's home. The team had just come back after finishing an unusually difficult job. The original plan had gone south fast, and Parker and Hardison ended up trapped inside the targeted building, with no way out. As a result Eliot was forced to abandon the safety of their newest edition of Lucille in order to get his two teammates out safely.

 _FLASHBACK_

 _He had opted to go through the lobby, disguised as just another worker, before going in the direction of the basement where he knew the two others would be. He also knew there would be guards posted throughout the stairs and corridor, but decided there was no other option than to take them out one after another. Mind you, he hadn't actually killed anyone or hurt any of them that bad, he´d simply made sure they would be unconscious for the time it would take for the three of them to get out._

 _When he had finally reached his teammates he could see the relief plainly on both their faces. Parker had tried to hide herself behind a few crates stored in the basement, stolen documents in hand. The hacker had opted for hugging the wall, hoping the shadows would disguise him, the hitter had to stop himself growling at seeing their, in his mind, stupid attempts at hiding. He knew that if just one of the guards had been half as good as him at noticing the surroundings, they would have been easily spotted and probably wouldn't have come out of the building unscathed.  
"Parker, Hardison. You guys OK?" he asked trying to mask his relief seeing that they where both unharmed, at least at first glance.  
"Yeah, man. Thank you!" Hardison grinned widely.  
"Mhm" Parker mumbled. She knew how close they had gotten to getting caught and she hated the idea.  
"Lets get out of here!" the hitter took of and placed a hand at Parkers back, guiding them towards the exit. _

_As they were driving back to the headquarter they looked over and discussed the documents they had retrieved and found that their target, a Mr. Tanner had some serious discrepancies in his firms economics, just as they had suspected. They decided that as soon as they got back to the office Hardison would use his skills and somehow Mr. Tanner would find himself facing the authorities tomorrow morning regarding the suspicious looks of how his firm handled their money. This again would (hopefully) ensure him loosing his precious company and the money he was left with, he would never see anything of. Instead it would be transferred to Leverages latest client, who lost everything after trusting Tanner and his insurance company._

So here he was, behind his desk, starting to feel the soreness in his muscles after fighting the guards, and some pain in his ribs and right shoulder too. The soreness had started to appear more frequent this past year, and the hitter had started to realize that he wasn't getting any younger. He didn't see himself as old, not by far, but his body had taken a beating over the years and it didn't surprise him that he now started to feel the consequences. Eliot simply wondered what he would do about it. Was he ready to leave the team? Whoa! Where did that thought come from? It wasn't as simple as that, and he knew it. If he were to leave Parker and Hardison, Leverage would probably seize to exist. Was that what he wanted? A knock at the door interrupted his thoughts and he looked up towards the door and asked whoever it was on the other side to enter.

"Hi" a small female voice came low. He recognized it easily as Parker.  
"Parker, what is it?" he asked not really surprised it was the little thief, she had a habit of coming to see him after every job they finished, just to see if he was alright.  
"Just wanted to see how you were doing, can`t have been easy fighting all of those guards?" she answered simply, smiling a little.  
"I`m fine Parker, promise. Just a little sore that's all." He hated admitting what he saw as a weakness, not actually intending to be so straight forward with her, but failing miserably at her genuine worry and kind smile.  
"Yeah, right!" she said forcefully before continuing, "don't lie to me El! I can see on your posture that you´re hurting and it wont magically disappear just cause you deny it" she snapped.  
"Seriously, it is nothing. A couple of bruised ribs and a stiff shoulder, that's all" he answered with what he meant to be a reassuring smile aimed at the thief.  
Parker simply shrugged and moved so that she was standing behind the chair he was in and placed her hands on his shoulders starting to rub them gently. Eliot closed his eyes and enjoyed the massage. She had such small hands, but their strength amazed him. He let out a small groan of pleasure, and he could practically hear her responding smile.  
"To be fear", she said, "I don't feel so great myself. I guess all the jobs we have taken on these past few months have taken its tall on my muscles and I can barely stand to think about our next job. I think maybe I need a vacation, what do you think Hardison will say to that?" she rambled.  
"Uhm, not sure, but a vacation certainly sounds good to me sweetheart." He brushed her hands off his shoulders and stood from his chair to face her. "Maybe we should just go ask him if he is okay with taking some time off?" he offered, almost more as a thought to himself than an actual question meant for Parker.  
"Yeah, lets," answered the thief before making her way out of Eliot's office in front of him.

Hardison was seated behind his tech desk, and was furiously punching the keyboard in front of him. He was obviously playing something or another, not that the hitter or the thief would ever be able to name the game. That geek stuff just wasn´t for them. They both stood in front of Hardison and tried to get his attention. After five minutes and all else failed Eliot had finally had enough. He bent down, located the power switches connected to the hackers set up and pressed the off button.  
"Wh… Wha…. What the hell man!" Hardison yelled, looking up from his computer, eying the offender with a grimace.  
"Hardi.." Parker tried but was cut off by a growl coming from her left.  
"Dammit Hardison! We have been standing here for five minutes trying to get your attention, but not once did you look up from that damn screen!" the hitter was mad now.  
"Hmpf! Do you have any idea what you just did? I just lost all my progress in…"  
"Hardison! We just have a simple question for you, then you can go back to the game" Parkers voice was soft, trying to lighten the mood.  
"What?"  
"Well, how do you fell about taking a vacation? Maybe a few months?"  
"Ehh…. Why? Do you have something more important to do?" was Hardisons instant reply.  
"No, it´s not that. It´s just that both Eliot and I are starting to feel quite beaten up to be honest. We have taken a lot of jobs lately, and if this thing we have here is going to continue to work well in the future, then we need a break right about now." Parker explained. Eliot stood to her left and simply nodded along to what she said.  
"Oh, okay, yeah I guess I get that. I don't really have the same amount of physical work as you guys do, but I understand what you´re saying and yeah…. Okay, so how long do you think this vacation should be then?" Hardison seemed to warm up to the idea, slowly but surely.  
"Well, I don't know about the two of you" the hitter said, "but I would like at least a couple of months off" he looked over at the other two.  
"Yeah, any shorter and it wont really be a break anyway" Parker chimed in.  
"So how about we say four months then?" asked Hardison.  
"Great" was Parkers response, her smile growing.  
"Sounds good" Eliot huffed out, smiling as well when he looked at Parker.  
"Well, I guess we should leave you to your gaming then" Eliot spoke to the hacker, looking at him as Hardison rebooted his system.  
"Yeah man, you´re right about that. I´m going to whoop the others asses!" It always baffled Eliot how a person could get that excited over something as trivial as he thought gaming to be. But he couldn't help the small smile covering his lips when looking over at the hacker.  
"Have fun!" Parker exclaimed before going around the desk so that she could give Hardison a hug. The hitter ground his teeth seeing Hardisons reaction to the hug. He knew that his friend had feelings for the little thief, and that he still, after all these years had a hope of one day winning her affections too. That thought was the only thing that had stopped Eliot a couple of years back from allowing his own feelings towards Parker come to the surface. He had buried them then, and he had no plans of digging them back up again. After Parker was done hugging Hardison and saying her good buy, he shook the hackers hand and turned to leave the apartment slash office.

Putting a hand at the small of Parkers back, not really thinking about it, Eliot guided her out the door and down the hall towards the elevator. They were currently at the top floor of the building Hardison lived in, and so they opted for the one elevator in the entire building. Yeah, and with its 30 floors, who came up with that right?!. He looked down over at Parker and discovered the almost sad look upon her face.  
"Darlin, what's up?" he asked, smiling slightly.  
"Oh, nothing much. Just afraid that this will turn into something more than just a four month break" she mumbled. A frown shoving clearly now.  
"Hey, I don't think that will happen, but if it does, we will cross that bridge then alright?" Eliot didn't know what else to tell her. He couldn't lie to her and tell her that there was absolutely no way that was happening, since he himself had had the same thought.  
"Yeah, okay I guess." she tried to smile at him. "So what exactly is it you plan on doing during this break?" she asked, seeming to be in a lighter mood already.  
"Not telling!" Eliot joked. But seeing the pout she gave him he added "no, I actually, and you cannot tell a living soul about this" she nodded solemnly and held up her pinkie inviting him to a pinkie swear, which he refused by swatting her hand away with a smirk, "I have sort of a bucket list on my kitchen counter, and there are some places I would like to travel to before I die, so maybe I´ll go to one of those places. Haven´t decided anything though." The elevator arrived at their floor and they got in.  
"Sounds fun" she smiled as she said it "I actually have a list a bit like that myself, but it is a list of places I would like to break in, so maybe I can cross of a few of those during the next months." The hitter was surprised she would share something like that, although they had become good friends over the years, Parker still strikes him as a very private person.

They got out of the elevator at the ground floor, and headed for the door. Out on the street he turned to her and with a smirk said "there is something wrong with you", she laughed at the joke knowing he was kidding. "You need a ride home?" he asked.  
"Nope, I think I want to walk " she answered popping the p. "Okidoki, take care darling, see you in a few months" he said, halfway turning from her. She stopped him by clutching his arm and looked into his eyes as she leant closer and kissed his cheek. "You to Sparky", she turned on her heel and before he could pull himself together she was gone.

He climbed into his truck, and drove home in silence, not bothering to turn on the radio. It felt like his cheek was on fire from where she had kissed him, and he had to use the whole ride home to wrap his head around it, figuring the only explanation was that she tried being friendly. As he reached his house, parked up front and went inside, he was still so distracted he didn't notice the little blond figure lurking in the backyard of the house next to his. He fetched a beer from his kitchen and turned the TV on, seating himself comfortably on the couch, flipping through channels until he found a game he wanted to watch. After a few minutes he fell asleep, and so didn't notice the little thief that lurked outside his kitchen window, looking inside spotting the piece of paper laid out on the kitchen counter. She could clearly see what was written on the list, and also that one thing was encircled with a red pen.  
What was written inside the circle both surprised and excited her, but if that was where Eliot was going then so were she. The little thief quickly backed away from the window, and while Eliot was still sleeping on the couch completely unaware of how close the thief had been, Parker was already plotting what would be the best way to get to Norway.

 **AN: This is it guys, what do you think? Good? Bad? Best as a one-shot or should there be more chapters? Review and let me know Thank you for reading!**


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